


fernweh

by mashaghost



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: Drabble, M/M, but it's not outright Said, some overtones of death considering the setting, there is a haircut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29409975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mashaghost/pseuds/mashaghost
Summary: "An ache for experiences and sensations never felt" is a funny way to suffer, but perhaps more frustratingly difficult to explain, much less remedy. And the King is emotionally inarticulate at the best of times.
Relationships: Natori/Neko Ou (Neko no Ongaeshi)





	fernweh

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small drabble of these two interacting again, but this time with the stipulation that it is occurring in more of a manga-based setting where the Cat Kingdom is part of the afterlife. Also one of my usual fics of 'a casual conversation that occurs while one character is kind of absentmindedly absorbed in some other task.' I am nothing if not predictable shrugs

Haircuts hadn’t always fallen under the expansive umbrella of Natori’s responsibilities. Like many of those tasks, it’s simply been absorbed there through the years, as if he were a duster to which they cling like particles of dust. Yet neither of them have found the drive to put an end to this particular routine, even as others fall by the wayside in their shared retirement.

It’s as Natori patiently combs through matted fur that the king eventually speaks up, “We haven’t gone up to the mountain house in a while.”

“I thought you had dozed off.”

“Nah. Just thinking.”

“Hm. You’re right, though. We haven’t visited in some time.”

“We should go.”

Natori sets the comb down on the side table he’d dragged over, instead picking up the shears and an old but ornate handheld mirror, which is nonchalantly taken by Claudius. “When would you like to go, sire? I’ll organize an expedition.”

At this, the king’s posture takes on a distinctly more sullen and intractable bearing; he goes so far as to cross his arms and sink lowly into his seat. “Not like that. I’m tired of being followed everywhere like a damn duckling. I want to go alone, just the two of us.”

Natori frowns, not just because Claudius, as usual, seems to forget he’s holding a pair of sharp hair clippers which could very easily result in injury with too unpredictable a movement, but at his request, as well.

“Just the two of us, sire? I’m not certain that’d be altogether appropriate, ha.”

“Bah, I’m the king— what I say is appropriate is what’s appropriate.”

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works,” Natori responds coolly, but Claudius can still hear the smile in his voice.

“What’s the point in even _being_ king, then?”

“Oh, everything _else_ may have some influence in making it worth it— the luxury, the status...”

The king pauses for a long while after that, staring out at the open window across the room and the sunlight streaming in through it. Outside, he can hear the rustling of a light breeze, and the nebulous murmur of voices as servants go about their day. There’s something very tired and stale about it all, but sequestered away in this room with his old advisor layers a shroud of comforting (not _tiring_ ) familiarity over that ennui he can’t quite articulate. He doesn’t think he should tell Natori about it.

“...the company,” he eventually adds, even though Natori has long since trailed off.

In response, he can feel the fleeting tremor in the other cat’s paws as they pass over his fur and eventually slow to an absent caress, the scarcest whisper of an indefinable grief. But the disquiet doesn’t linger; only seconds later, Natori is back to combing through for stray hairs and snipping those that are too long or unruly. Claudius thinks his touch is gentler than before. He remembers the mirror in his lap and pulls it up, inspecting Natori’s handiwork.

“So, as I was saying,” he then starts again, conversationally, as if nothing had happened, “We should go. Think it’s high time I got a change of scenery, babe. I’ve been bored as sin just hanging around since Lune took over.”

Natori doesn’t respond to that, which the king finds rather strange. In the little oval mirror, he glimpses his advisor’s troubled expression and finds he isn’t certain what to say about it, having little conjecture regarding its source. Instead, he opts for distraction.

“You know I’m going one way or the other, babe.” Spoken with a defiant grin.

Here Natori sighs in his usual way, though it trembles, and when he answers, Claudius can tell it was meant to be with his _also_ usual accompanying resignation, but he doesn’t quite manage it. The muted distress has vanished, replaced instead by an exasperated, but recognizably fond demeanor. “Then I will accompany you, sire.”


End file.
